The complete National Strategy for Counter Terrorism of the United States of America is on the White House website here.
Note: MI5/6 & the CIA have studiously ignored my written contributions to ensuring Terrorism does not become a continual escalating reality with the emergence of a Terrorist ‘Superpower’.
However, that has not stopped me from writing my own Perspective and discussion notes on Counter Terrorism. To read my previous work click here
I have read President Trump’s October 2018 National Strategy on Counter Terrorism and make these comments………
In the forward to the National Strategy on Counter Terrorism (NSCT) President Trump states ‘I will’ and ‘I promise’. These are very important words. President Trump takes them very seriously. If it needed building he built it and so too as President if it needs doing he will do it and in first 2 years of his Presidency he has done just that.
That is why the Strategy should not be treated lightly by those who seek to blame America for that which is of their own doing. It is an easy way to gather support and ignore home-grown failings but it will not endear them to a Nation that has sought to assist those who it has befriended.
This is a President with red lines who will not hesitate to use whatever resources are available to keep America and its allies safe. Except that the word Allies means that you support America and its ideals – lip service alone to the American ideal of a progressive economic liberalism and individual economic empowerment is no longer good enough. The U.S National Strategy of 2017 made it very clear ‘America values its friends’.
The Executive Summary which follows Presidents Trump’s foreword could not be more explicit. Americans are no longer going to die alone fighting terrorism. I agree. Terrorism as an action cannot be defeated by America alone. Yes the allies of America all make their own contributions but it is the Global Movement against Terrorism that is lacking. That is what comes out of the Executive Summary if you want to end Terrorism then you cannot do it from the sidelines.
The Introduction makes the point that Terrorism is a Global problem and therefore must have a Global Strategy. Good, but that means everybody has to be on the same page and unfortunately at the moment there are too many ideologies who will use terrorism to subvert America.
How to overcome this? America must develop the Global Policeman – a new Global Directorate which is made up of all Nations with a Global Strategy to defeat Terrorism.
As I write this I am mindful of that proud trek of humanity from Honduras to America. Each person and child on that march wanting a better life and willing to sustain hardship to achieve it. We should be proud that mankind still has a soul that can allow it to stand upright against injustice. However, borders and National Sovereignty are there not to be abused but to maintain a secure and safe way of life and to ensure that your Nation retains its identity both historically and culturally. Aid to Honduras has not gone to the people and Climate Change has not been addressed in Central South America.
President Trump will have to consider a more prominent policy role in those areas as he will his humane approach to a people who cannot cross the U.S Border but must be treated as human beings.
The Strategy empathises the need to control U.S Borders. However, America and its Allies Security is compromised by less stringent Border Security in other parts of the developed World. Until recently borders have been viewed as a obstacle to trade and there has been a relaxing of border crossings- particularly in Europe. This has been a mistake and it has cost lives. Borders are an opportunity – where else can a person be verified to ensure he or she is not a criminal or terrorist? Borders are a cost-effective screening method and ensure a minimum level of internal security. Modern and developing technology has made Country entry faster and allowed ‘deeper’ screening. The Customs technology at Sydney Airport is a good example of modern technology at work. America should encourage the development of ‘deep screening’ as the Technology develops so that Borders including those in NATO and E.U States can be enforced.
Eventually they will have to be enforced – Free movement will become a Process of the Past as Climate Change will move millions and with it a wave of civil unrest. The Strategy does not clarify Border Security as a Global need.
What do ‘National U.S Security’ and European State(s) Border Authorities intend to do when millions of people are fleeing the desperate scenes that Climate Change will bring? You can be a Climate Change Sceptic till Doomsday but when 2-3 million people are fleeing drought or flood devastation and they are on your doorstep you still have to deal with the situation.
If we want to avoid the escalating steps to a Global War we must begin to map the movement of people due to Climate Change and prepare for it. This then leads onto a possible developing scenario the National Strategy for Counter Terrorism is also light on…..
The Introduction is quite specific when it mentions ‘ radical Islamist terrorism ‘ yet it makes no mention of those who seek to subvert Western Democracy by using radical Islamist terrorism as their tool and not their ideology. The assumption appears to be that quote ‘the destructive, totalitarian nature of the ideology that fuels violent radical Islamist movements, such as ISIS and al-Qa’ida‘ alone are the main threat.
They are a threat but are they about to or are already receiving support from a new threat? How much of ‘a new threat’ is embedded in the United States? This is a brief outline of a potential ‘New Threat or perhaps the ‘reemergence of an old one’?
‘ A New Threat’ …….Successive Governments of all Nation States have created the ‘mess’ the World is in now. Climate change, the increasing divide between the rich and poor, the Trade Agreement ‘underclass’, the exponential rise in Crime, the use of the Internet to spread child pornography and child abuse et al are all failures of Governments who are entrusted to ensure the safety and security of the People and not to mince words ‘ they have failed the people’.
There are no doubt those who have access to Power, money and the resources necessary to fund and fuel a ‘New World Order’ because they see the ‘cliff-edge’ as their long-awaited ‘nirvana’. Theirs is not a doctrine or ideology. They see it as ‘their birthright’.
The signs of this re-emerging threat in all its many guises are everywhere and if I can see them so can the CIA and MI5/6, Mossad, the MSS, the SVR RF and the DGSE. It is no doubt the depth and length of the timeline we would disagree on.
America will have to face this threat in all its many guises one of which may be the support of a new ‘Terrorist Super Power’. The Introduction makes no mention of this and it should at the very least warn of the possibility of support for Terrorism coming from those who seek to use it to subvert America besides Iran.
The Strategy is correct to identify ISIS as the main Terrorist threat but that is set to change very quickly and may take U.S Security Services by surprise though no doubt they have already ‘etched’ the scenario of a Global Threat from a ‘ Coalition of the Disaffected’.
The Strategy is correct in its identification of the current threat and yes it proposes and underlines the latest in counter-terrorism thinking. We are at a pivotal point in the growth of Terrorism that does not appear to be fully developed by the Strategy. It does mention neo-nazi groups etc but it is a little off target. This is the basis for my suggesting that a ‘New Threat’ is emerging”.
Whoever controls the Communication controls the Command and therefore is the Command.
Terrorism requires a form of structure that enables it to operate. Not money or even weapons – terrorism has plenty of both. Terrorism needs a structure which allows communication and ‘organic growth’. This is Terrorism as a way of life rather than as a person led terrorist organisation. Terrorism requires most a system of communication and operation – they are the two most difficult systems for any terrorist group to operate and manage.
As I have stated earlier and I am sure the analysts at the CIA and possibly MI5/6 have already sketched there is a growing disaffection from Government that is becoming more structural. The cliff-edge I mentioned earlier is real and if I perceive it to be so then no doubt there are many others who also see it looming.The CIA should increase its monitoring of those who are in positions to support Terrorism with a worldwide system of communication and operation – including the real possibility that they may be using existing Military Intel Systems with the aid of rogue Bio-Technologies. Read also Brain to Computer Terrorism.
The United States National Strategy for Counter Terrorism then leads on to Strategic Objectives one of which is ……………..
This particular Objective is the most likely subject of a future scenario. Once a Command and Operation System is made available to ‘Terrorists’ then it is more likely that chemical weapons will become the latest in the series of the escalating terror attacks we have seen in developed Countries. Whilst attacks in the Middle East and Asia will continue they are not as relevant to those who seek to direct Terrorism in order to achieve a more Global Strategy of ‘confusion and unrest’.
Chemical weapons have a greater threat/mass for a less obvious cost then other WMD. Companies can be contracted to produce Chemical Weapons without the knowledge of the Security Services – this is because our Government(s) have gone down a singular threat direction which has blinded them to the possibility of a threat from within. Putting 600 Armed Anti-terrorist Police on the Streets of London will not stop any terror act from being planned and executed just as it will not stop a Command and Operation System being made to produce Chemical Weapons in the U.S to air burst over New York – the U.S National Strategy for Counter Terrorism should consider this potential new Threat.
I am not attempting to underestimate the extreme Islamic threat; it remains greater than ever. What I am doing is suggesting a new more dangerous direction for Terrorism that should be evaluated by the United States Intelligence Services.
The U.S National goes onto evaluate and describe various thereat scenarios and provides both task and conclusion in order to negate them. Some are more important that others.
“Isolate terrorists from financial, material, and logistical sources of support” is key in fact if we are to defeat terrorism then this to be at the top of the ‘hardware’ list. Financial being kingpin or at least until the Control and Command scenario is based on Wall Street. By that I mean a whole system of Terrorist support sitting side by side with American commerce.
Terrorists do not need finance if someone else is providing them with everything they need – to both far right and extreme Islamic.
This is a ‘real threat’ not only to the U.S.A and it allies but also to Russia and China. The Financial System will need to be much more rigorously transparent to Security Services if the ‘next level’ is to be combated – this may eventually be literal.
A Security Portal into and out of the U.S. Cyber Borders may have to be created whilst at the same time ensuring ‘free speech/expression is maintained.
The NSCT lists lines of effort one of which and the most important is….
I can only assess the U.S preparedness from that which I read and see in the News. On that basis I have to say that the U.S is totally disconnected from what is to come. Why? Because like MI5/6 the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have channelled their resources into the obvious threat and not the possibility of a ‘New Threat’. Not only that but they have not perceived there to be a Global Threat which also threatens China and Russia – therefore the division of resources due to competing ideologies has prevented ‘new threats from being fully extrapolated from theory to reality. This does not infer our Security Services and Military do not have the perception of any ‘New Threat’ but rather that ‘Government’ have reacted to Terrorism with a very Public and sometimes self-defeating spontaneity – which is a double-edged sword.
To be cont/….
